Project Personas

 

Joe Goza: A Teacher on the Edge of Technology
“History is Not Boring”

Works as:  9th grade history teacher in Oregon

Background: History Major, San Francisco State University

Age:  39 and has been teaching 11 years

Computer Skills:

Proficient trying out new technology in the classroom

Curious about new ways to teach history in the classroom

Quick Takes

  • Wants to engage students in new ways of understanding history
  • Believes that students learn best by doing

A Day in the Life Narrative

Joe has been teaching history for 11 years.  He has become bored with “stand and deliver” teaching and so have his students.  Recently he learned about Project Based Learning through posts on Edutopia, and he sometimes lurks on the #sschat on Twitter on Tuesday nights.  He’s been experimenting lately with having students do documentaries using their BYOT devices instead of doing research papers.  They like the technological aspect of it, but he isn’t sure if this just isn’t changing the format of presentation.  He really wants to teach students to think about being historians and to practice the skills of thinking historically.

End Goals

  • Joe is willing to try out new things in education, but he needs to understand how to make that happen.
  • He wants students to move beyond just reading about history. He wants them to make connections to history.
  • Joe has heard about a lot of different projects on the Twitter #sschat and in reading Edutopia posts about how to incorporate real world learning in history.  However, teachers usually only present their ideas and not the details of the project. He doesn’t have time to reinvent the wheel.
Donna Key:  Grandmother
“There are two gifts we can give our children; one is roots – the other is wings.”

Works as: Professional Grandmother
Background:  Retired Flight Attendant from Southwest Airlines
Computer Skills:  Likes to surf the Internet, do genealogy on Ancestry.com and connect with her family on Facebook

Quick Takes

  • Enjoys being involved in her grandchildren’s lives and school
  • Volunteers at the Arboretum and reads with underprivileged students at the local elementary
  • Enjoys travel

A Day in the Life Narrative

Donna is an active grandmother and regularly volunteers at a range of community placements.  She also helps her daughter juggle picking up the grandkids at school when needed.  She enjoys going to the kids’ performances and being involved in their lives.  In her spare time, she enjoys doing genealogy research and planning future trips.  She also likes to keep up with the family on Facebook.

She was excited to help her granddaughter learn more about what it was like to be a flight attendant during the earliest days of Southwest Airlines.  Her granddaughter interviewed her for a school project and made a little film about it.  She was proud of her grandaughter’s work and wants to share it with the family.

End Goals

  • She enjoys opportunities for connecting with her grandchildren.
  • She wants to share her grandchild’s project with family members.
  • Weaving Our Story allows her to share a link to her granddaughter’s work with her friends and family.
  • She enjoys “strolling down memory lane” in her Ancestry research so she is likely to enjoy looking at other student work or additional resources as well.

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